1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to routing data, and more particularly, a method of throttling data flow through a router.
2. Description of Related Art
Excessive data can create overload and outage of a router as seen in the case of a Line Interface Unit (LIU), which is a message router in the cell of a wireless network. Existing overload control schemes treat all data, even data of differing types, the same. As such data is assumed to arrive at a router at a certain rate and get processed at a certain rate. In the more practical case, there are several classes or types of events or data, e.g., different types of messages in the case of message router in the cell of a wireless network. The different types of data tend to arrive at different rates and get processed at different rates. However, by treating different data types the same, the overload control mechanism may indiscriminately shed more important types of data and pass less important types of data. Additionally, a particular type of data may be more responsible for overloading the router than another type of data. As such, treating the different data types the same also means designing the router and overload control mechanisms for the worst case data type. Consequently, even when such overload mechanisms are used, router sizes have to be expanded unnecessarily to accommodate rare case of load surge in order to maintain a desired level of service; thus making the overall system that includes the router very costly.